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CBC Radio's Sunday Edition highlights issue of corporate tax evasion

Want to know more about corporate tax evasion? Listen to Dennis Howlett from Canadians for Tax Fairness on CBC Radio's Sunday Edition, this Sunday, March 16, at 9 a.m., to hear how much revenue Canada is losing and what we can do about it.

Ottawa (14 Mar. 2014) — When you are hunched over your dining room table in the coming weeks working on your tax return, your stomach in knots and your head swimming, consider this sobering fact: 26 of the most powerful and profitable Fortune 500 companies paid zero dollars in federal income tax to the U.S. government between 2008 and 2012.

CBC talks about how corporations are getting away with avoiding tax rules while the rest of us pay

Boeing paid nothing. General Electric ... nothing. Verizon .... nothing. For five straight years these companies did not pay a cent in federal income tax. And the craziest part — it wasn't illegal. In fact, the lawyers and accountants who figured out how to do itare all likely getting hefty bonuses.

Corporate tax avoidance has become an essential part of doing business for multinational corporations all over the world. They use complex, opaque business practices to shift profits into low- or no-tax jurisdictions.

The situation is hardly in Canada. The Canada Revenue Agency is currently locked in a protracted court battle with the uranium mining firm Cameco which has used a subsidiary office in a Swiss tax haven to avoid paying over $800 million in taxes to Canadian governments.

Cameco is hardly alone.

Top Canadian publicly traded companies use multiple tactics to avoid paying taxes — from transferring profits to offices in tax havens, to paying CEOs and directors in stock options that are not subject to tax. More than half of the top 60 companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange paid less than 10 per cent of their revenue in taxes, even though the combined federal and provincial corporate tax rate is now over 25 per cent.

Host Michael Enright interviews Canadians for Tax Fairness to tell the story on what the loss of taxes means for Canadians

As part of this important story, Sunday Edition host, Michael Enright, interviewed Dennis Howlett, executive director of Canadians for Tax Fairness to find out how deep the problem runs.

Listen to the interview this Sunday, March 16, during the first hour of the program which starts at 9:00 a.m. local time or 9:30 a.m. in Newfoundland. Or you can listen to it online.

NUPGE

The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE.